__Owen Wister__

THE VIRGINIAN

A Horseman of the Plains

1902 Introduction, Chapters 1-3

Illustrations from the original edition

To THEODORE ROOSEVELT Some of these pages you have seen, some you have praised, one stands new - written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to remind you of their author’s changeless admiration.

TO THE READER1

Certain of the newspapers, when this book was first is a vanished world. No journeys, save those which announced, made a mistake most natural upon seeing the memory can take, will bring you to it now. The sub-title as it then stood, A Tale of Sundry Adventures. mountains are there, far and shining, and the sunlight, “This sounds like a historical novel,” said one of them, and the infinite earth, and the air that seems forever the meaning (I take it) a colonial romance. As it now stands, true fountain of youth,  but where is the buffalo, and the title will scarce lead to such interpretation; yet none the wild antelope, and where the horseman with his the less is this book historical  quite as much so as any pasturing thousands? So like its old self does the sage- colonial romance. Indeed, when you look at the root of brush seem when revisited, that you wait for the the matter, it is a colonial romance. For Wyoming horseman to appear. between 1874 and 1890 was a colony as wild as was But he will never come again. He rides in his historic Virginia one hundred years earlier. As wild, with a yesterday. You will no more see him gallop out of the scantier population, and the same primitive joys and unchanging silence than you will see Columbus on the dangers. There were, to be sure, not so many unchanging sea come sailing from Palos with his Chippendale settees. caravels. We know quite well the common understanding of And yet the horseman is still so near our day that in the term “historical novel.” Hugh Wynne exactly fits it. some chapters of this book, which were published But Silas Lapham is a novel as perfectly historical as is separate at the close of the nineteenth century, the Hugh Wynne, for it pictures an era and personifies a type. present tense was used. It is true no longer. In those It matters not that in the one we find George Washington chapters it has been changed, and verbs like “is” and and in the other none save imaginary figures; else The “have” now read “was” and “had.” Time has flowed Scarlet Letter were not historical. Nor does it matter that faster than my ink. Dr. Mitchell did not live in the time of which he wrote, What is become of the horseman, the cow-puncher, while Mr. Howells saw many Silas Laphams with his the last romantic figure upon our soil? For he was own eyes; else Uncle Tom’s Cabin were not historical. romantic. Whatever he did, he did with his might. The Any narrative which presents faithfully a day and a bread that he earned was earned hard, the wages that he generation is of necessity historical; and this one presents squandered were squandered hard, — half a year’s pay Wyoming between 1874 and 1890. sometimes gone in a night, — “blown in,” as he Had you left New York or San Francisco at ten expressed it, or “blowed in,” to be perfectly accurate. o’clock this morning, by noon the day after to-morrow Well, he will be here among us always, invisible, waiting you could step out at Cheyenne. There you would stand his chance to live and play as he would like. His wild at the heart of the world that is the subject of my picture, kind has been among us always, since the beginning: a yet you would look around you in vain for the reality. It young man with his temptations, a hero without wings.

Presented by the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC. 2005. The cow-puncher’s ungoverned hours did not unman thing true? Now to this I have the best answer in the him. If he gave his word, he kept it; Wall Street would world. Once a cow-puncher listened patiently while I have found him behind the times. Nor did he talk lewdly read him a manuscript. It concerned an event upon an to women; Newport would have thought him old- Indian reservation. “Was that the Crow reservation?” he fashioned. He and his brief epoch make a complete inquired at the finish. I told him that it was no real picture, for in themselves they were as complete as the reservation and no real event; and his face expressed pioneers of the land or the explorers of the sea. A displeasure. “Why,” he demanded, “do you waste your transition has followed the horseman of the plains; a time writing what never happened, when you know so shapeless state, a condition of men and manners as many things that did happen?” unlovely as is that moment in the year when winter is And I could no more help telling him that this was the gone and spring not come, and the face of Nature is ugly. highest compliment ever paid me than I have been able I shall not dwell upon it here. Those who have seen it to help telling you about it here! know well what I mean. Such transition was inevitable. Let us give thanks that it is but a transition, and not a CHARLESTON, S.C., March 31st, 1902 finality. Sometimes readers inquire, Did I know the Virginian? As well, I hope, as a father should know his son. And sometimes it is asked, Was such and such a

THE VIRGINIAN

A Horseman of the Plains

Some world. His undistracted eye stayed fixed upon I. ENTER THE MAN notable sight the dissembling foe, and the gravity of his was drawing horse-expression made the matter one of high the passengers, both men and women, to the comedy. Then the rope would sail out at him, window; and therefore I rose and crossed the car but he was already elsewhere; and if horses to see what it was. I saw near the track an laugh, gayety must have abounded in that corral. enclosure, and round it some laughing men, and Sometimes the pony took a turn alone; next he inside it some whirling dust, and amid the dust had slid in a flash among his brothers, and the some horses, plunging, huddling, and dodging. whole of them like a school of playful fish They were cow ponies in a corral, and one of whipped round the corral, kicking up the fine them would not be caught, no matter who threw dust, and (I take it) roaring with laughter. the rope. We had plenty of time to watch this Through the window-glass of our Pullman the sport, for our train had stopped that the engine thud of their mischievous hoofs reached us, and might take water at the tank before it pulled us the strong, humorous curses of the cow-boys. up beside the station platform of Medicine Bow Then for the first time I noticed a man who sat [Wyoming]. We were also six hours late, and on the high gate of the corral, looking on. For he starving for entertainment. The pony in the now climbed down with the undulations of a corral was wise, and rapid of limb. Have you tiger, smooth and easy, as if his muscles flowed seen a skilful boxer watch his antagonist with a beneath his skin. The others had all visibly quiet, incessant eye? Such an eye as this did the whirled the rope, some of them even shoulder pony keep upon whatever man took the rope. high. I did not see his arm lift or move. He The man might pretend to look at the weather, appeared to hold the rope down low, by his leg. which was fine; or he might affect earnest But like a sudden snake I saw the noose go out conversation with a bystander: it was bootless. its length and fall true; and the thing was done. The pony saw through it. No feint hoodwinked As the captured pony walked in with a sweet, him. This animal was thoroughly a man of the church-door expression, our train moved slowly

2 on to the station, and a passenger remarked, out through the door at the sky and the plains; “That man knows his business.” but I did not see the antelope shining among the But the passenger’s dissertation upon roping sage-brush, nor the great sunset light of I was obliged to lose, for Medicine Bow was my Wyoming. Annoyance blinded my eyes to all station. I bade my fellow-travellers good-by, things save my grievance: I saw only a lost and descended, a stranger, into the great cattle trunk. And I was muttering half-aloud, “What a land. And here in less than ten minutes I learned forsaken hole this is!” when suddenly from news which made me feel a stranger indeed. outside on the platform came a slow voice:  My baggage was lost; it had not come on my “Off to get married again? Oh, don’t!” train; it was adrift somewhere back in the two The voice was Southern and gentle and thousand miles that lay behind me. And by way drawling; and a second voice came in of comfort, the baggage-man remarked that immediate answer, cracked and querulous:  passengers often got astray from their trunks, “It ain’t again. Who says it’s again? Who but the trunks mostly found them after a while. told you, anyway?” Having offered me this encouragement, he And the first voice responded caressingly:  turned whistling to his affairs and left me “Why, your Sunday clothes told me, Uncle planted in the baggage-room at Medicine Bow. I Hughey. They are speakin’ mighty loud o’ stood deserted among crates and boxes, blankly nuptials.” holding my check, furious and forlorn. I stared “You don’t worry me!” snapped Uncle Hughey, with shrill heat. And the other gently continued, “Ain’t them gloves the same yu’ wore to your last weddin’?” “You don’t worry me! You don’t worry me!” now screamed Uncle Hughey. Already I had forgotten my trunk; care had left me; I was aware of the sunset, and had no desire but for more of this conversation. For it resembled none that I had heard in my life so far. I stepped to the door and looked out upon the station platform. Lounging there at ease against the wall was a slim young giant, more beautiful than pictures. His broad, soft hat was pushed back; a loose- knotted, dull-scarlet handkerchief sagged from his throat; and one casual thumb was hooked in the cartridge-belt that slanted across his hips. He had plainly come many miles from somewhere across the vast horizon, as the dust upon him showed. His boots were white with it. His overalls were gray with it. The weather-beaten bloom of his face shone through it duskily, as the ripe peaches look upon their trees in a dry season. But no dinginess of travel or shabbiness of attire could tarnish the splendor that radiated from his youth and strength. The old man upon whose temper his remarks were doing such deadly work was combed and curried to a finish,

a bridegroom swept and garnished; but alas for

3 age! Had I been the bride, I should have taken “Why, I was mighty relieved when she began the giant, dust and all. to recover her mem’ry. Las’ time I heard, they He had by no means done with the old man. told me she’d got it pretty near all back. “Why, yu’ve hung weddin’ gyarments on Remembered her father, and her mother, and her every limb!” he now drawled, with admiration. sisters and brothers, and her friends, and her “Who is the lucky lady this trip?” happy childhood, and all her doin’s except only The old man seemed to vibrate. “Tell you your face. The boys was bettin’ she’d get that there ain’t been no other! Call me a Mormon, far too, give her time. But I reckon afteh such a would you?” turrable sickness as she had, that would be “Why, that —” expectin’ most too much.” “Call me a Mormon? Then name some of my At this Uncle Hughey jerked out a small wives. Name two. Name one. Dare you!” parcel. “Shows how much you know!” he “—that Laramie wido’ promised you—” cackled. “There! See that! That’s my ring she “Shucks!” sent me back, being too unstrung for marriage. “— only her docter suddenly ordered So she don’t remember me, don’t she? Ha-ha! Southern climate and —” Always said you were a false alarm.” “Shucks! You’re a false alarm.” The Southerner put more anxiety into his “— so nothing but her lungs came between tone. “And so you’re a-takin’ the ring right on to you. And next you’d most got united with Cattle the next one!” he exclaimed. “Oh, don’t go to Kate, only —” get married again, Uncle Hughey! What’s the “Tell you you’re a false alarm!” use o’ being married?” “— only she got hung.” “What’s the use?” echoed the bridegroom, “Where’s the wives in all this? Show the with scorn. “Hm! When you grow up you’ll wives! Come now!” think different.” “That corn-fed biscuit-shooter at Rawlins yu’ “Course I expect to think different when my gave the canary —” age is different. I’m havin’ the thoughts proper “Never married her. Never did marry —” to twenty-four, and you’re havin’ the thoughts “But yu’ come so near, uncle! She was the proper to sixty.” one left yu’ that letter explaining how she’d got “Fifty!” shrieked Uncle Hughey, jumping in married to a young cyard-player the very day the air. before her ceremony with you was due, and —” The Southerner took a tone of self-reproach. “Oh, you’re nothing; you’re a kid; you don’t “Now, how could I forget you was fifty,” he amount to —” murmured, “when you have been telling it to the “—and how she’d never, never forgot to feed boys so careful for the last ten years!” the canary.” Have you ever seen a cockatoo — the white “This country’s getting full of kids,” stated kind with the top-knot — enraged by insult? the old man, witheringly. “It’s doomed.” This The bird erects every available feather upon its crushing assertion plainly satisfied him. And he person. So did Uncle Hughey seem to swell, blinked his eyes with renewed anticipation. His clothes, mustache, and woolly white beard; and tall tormentor continued with a face of without further speech he took himself on board unchanging gravity, and a voice of gentle the East-bound train, which now arrived from its solicitude:  siding in time to deliver him. “How is the health of that unfortunate —” Yet this was not why he had not gone away “That’s right! Pour your insults! Pour ’em on before. At any time he could have escaped into a sick, afflicted woman!” The eyes blinked with the baggage-room or withdrawn to a dignified combative relish. distance until his train should come up. But the “Insults? Oh, no, Uncle Hughey!” old man had evidently got a sort of joy from this “That’s all right! Insults goes!” teasing. He had reached that inevitable age

4 when we are tickled to be linked with affairs of tall man was gallantry, no matter how. looking With him now the East-bound departed gravely at slowly into that distance whence I had come. I me, — as stared after it as it went its way to the far shores gravely as he of civilization. It grew small in the unending had looked at gulf of space, until all sign of its presence was Uncle gone save a faint skein of smoke against the Hughey evening sky. And now my lost trunk came back throughout into my thoughts, and Medicine Bow seemed a their lonely spot. A sort of ship had left me marooned remarkable in a foreign ocean; the Pullman was comfortably conversation. steaming home to port, while I — how was I to To see his find Judge Henry’s ranch? Where in this eye thus unfeatured wilderness was Sunk Creek? No fixing me and creek or any water at all flowed here that I could his thumb still hooked in his cartridge-belt, perceive. My host had written he should meet certain tales of travellers from these parts forced me at the station and drive me to his ranch. This themselves disquietingly into my recollection. was all that I knew. He was not here. The Now that Uncle Hughey was gone, was I to take baggage-man had not seen him lately. The ranch his place and be, for instance, invited to dance was almost certain to be too far to walk to, to- on the platform to the music of shots nicely night. My trunk — I discovered myself still aimed? staring dolefully after the vanished East-bound; “I reckon I am looking for you, seh,” the tall and at the same instant I became aware that the man now observed.

II. “WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT, SMILE!”

We cannot see ourselves as other see us, or I Uncle Hughey, I should have judged him wholly should know what appearance I cut at hearing ungifted with such powers. There was nothing this from the tall man. I said nothing, feeling external about him but what seemed the signs of uncertain. a nature as grave as you could meet. But I had “I reckon I am looking for you, seh,” he witnessed; and therefore supposing that I knew repeated politely. him in spite of his appearance, that I was, so to “I am looking for Judge Henry,” I now speak, in his secret and could give him a sort of replied. wink, I adopted at once a method of easiness. It He walked toward me, and I saw that in was so pleasant to be easy with a large stranger, inches he was not a giant. He was not more than who instead of shooting at your heels had very six feet. It was Uncle Hughey that had made civilly handed you a letter. him seem to tower. But in his eye, in his face, in “You’re from old Virginia, I take it?” I his step, in the whole man, there dominated a began. something potent to be felt, I should think, by He answered slowly, “Then you have taken it man or woman. correct, seh.” “The Judge sent me afteh you, seh,” he now A slight chill passed over my easiness, but I explained, in his civil Southern voice; and he went cheerily on with a further inquiry. “Find handed me a letter from my host. Had I not many oddities out here like Uncle Hughey?” witnessed his facetious performances with

5

“Yes, seh, there is a right smart of oddities dance, to be sure: that would scarcely be around. They come in on every train.” trustworthy. But neither did he propose to have At this point I dropped my method of me familiar with him. Why was this? What had easiness. I done to elicit that veiled and skilful sarcasm “I wish that trunks came on the train,” said I. about oddities coming in on every train? Having And I told him my predicament. been sent to look after me, he would do so, It was not to be expected that he would be would even carry my valise; but I could not be greatly moved at my loss; but he took it with no jocular with him. This handsome, comment whatever. “We’ll wait in town for it,” ungrammatical son of the soil had set between said he, always perfectly civil. us the bar of his cold and perfect civility. No Now, what I had seen of “town” was, to my polished person could have done it better. What newly arrived eyes, altogether horrible. If I was the matter? I looked at him, and suddenly it could possibly sleep at the Judge’s ranch, I came to me. If he had tried familiarity with me preferred to do so. the first two minutes of our acquaintance, I “Is it too far to drive there to-night?” I should have resented it; by what right, then, had inquired. I tried it with him? It smacked of patronizing: He looked at me in a puzzled manner. on this occasion he had come off the better “For this valise,” I explained, “contains all gentleman of the two. Here in flesh and blood that I immediately need; in fact, I could do was a truth which I had long believed in words, without my trunk for a day or two, if it is not but never met before. The creature we call a convenient to send. So if we could arrive there gentleman lies deep in the hearts of thousands not too late by starting at once —” I paused. that are born without chance to master the “It’s two hundred and sixty-three miles,” said outward graces of the type. the Virginian. Between the station and the eating-house I To my loud ejaculation he made no answer, did a deal of straight thinking. But my thoughts but surveyed me a moment longer, and then were destined presently to be drowned in said, “Supper will be about ready now.” He took amazement at the rare personage into whose my valise, and I followed his steps toward the society fate had thrown me. eating-house in silence. I was dazed. Town, as they called it, pleased me the less, As we went, I read my host’s letter — a brief, the longer I saw it. But until our language hospitable message. He was very sorry not to stretches itself and takes in a new word of closer meet me himself. He had been getting ready to fit, town will have to do for the name of such a drive over, when the surveyor appeared and place as was Medicine Bow. I have seen and detained him. Therefore in his stead he was slept in many like it since. Scattered wide, they sending a trustworthy man to town, who would littered the frontier from the Columbia to the look after me and drive me over. They were Rio Grande, from the Missouri to the Sierras. looking forward to my visit with much pleasure. They lay stark, dotted over a planet of treeless This was all. dust, like soiled packs of cards. Each was Yes, I was dazed. How did they count similar to the next, as one old five-spot of clubs distance in this country? You spoke in a resembles another. Houses, empty bottles, and neighborly fashion about driving over to town, garbage, they were forever of the same and it meant — I did not know yet how many shapeless pattern. More forlorn they were than days. And what would be meant by the term stale bones. They seemed to have been strewn “dropping in,” I wondered. And how many there by the wind and to be waiting till the wind miles would be considered really far? I should come again and blow them away. Yet abstained from further questioning the serene above their foulness swam a pure and “trustworthy man.” My questions had not fared quiet light, such as the East never sees; they excessively well. He did not propose making me might be bathing in the air of creation’s first

6 morning. Beneath sun and stars their days and “Drummers, are they?” asked the Virginian. nights were immaculate and wonderful. “Two Jews handling cigars, one American Medicine Bow was my first, and I took its with consumption killer, and a Dutchman with dimensions, twenty-nine buildings in all, — one jew’lry.” coal shute, one water tank, the station, one store, The Virginian set down my valise, and two eating-houses, one billiard hall, two tool- seemed to meditate. “I did want a bed to-night,” houses, one feed stable, and twelve others that he murmured gently. for one reason and another I shall not name. Yet “Well,” Steve suggested, “the American this wretched husk of squalor spent thought looks like he washed the oftenest.” upon appearances; many houses in it wore a “That’s of no consequence to me,” observed false front to seem as if they were two stories the Southerner. high. There they stood, rearing their pitiful “Guess it’ll be when yu’ see ’em.” masquerade amid a fringe of old tin cans, while “Oh, I’m meaning something different. I at their very doors began a world of crystal wanted a bed to myself.” light, a land without end, a space across which “Then you’ll have to build one.” Noah and Adam might come straight from “Bet yu’ I have the Dutchman’s.” Genesis. Into that space went wandering a road, “Take a man that won’t scare. Bet yu’ drinks over a hill and down out of sight, and up again yu’ can’t have the American’s.” smaller in the distance, and down once more, “Go yu’,” said the Virginian. “I’ll have his and up once more, straining the eyes, and so bed without any fuss. Drinks for the crowd.” away. “I suppose you have me beat,” said Steve, Then I heard a fellow greet my Virginian. He grinning at him affectionately. “You’re such a came rollicking out of a door, and made a pass son-of-a — when you get down to work. Well, with his hand at the Virginian’s hat. The so-long! I got to fix my horse’s hoofs.” Southerner dodged it, and I saw once more the I had expected that the man would be struck tiger undulation of body, and knew my escort down. He had used to the Virginian a term of was he of the rope and the corral. heaviest insult, I thought. I had marvelled to “How are yu’, Steve?” he said to the hear it come so unheralded from Steve’s rollicking man. And in his tone I heard instantly friendly lips. And now I marvelled still more. old friendship speaking. With Steve he would Evidently he had meant no harm by it, and take and give familiarity. evidently no offence had been taken. Used thus, Steve looked at me, and looked away — and this language was plainly complimentary. I had that was all. But it was enough. In no company stepped into a world new to me indeed, and had I ever felt so much an outsider. Yet I liked novelties were occurring with scarce any time to the company, and wished that it would like me. get breath between them. As to where I should “Just come to town?” inquired Steve of the sleep, I had forgotten that problem altogether in Virginian. my curiosity. What was the Virginian going to “Been here since noon. Been waiting for the do now? I began to know that the quiet of this train.” man was volcanic. “Going out to-night?” “Will you wash first, sir?” “I reckon I’ll pull out to-morro’.” We were at the door of the eating-house, and “Beds are all took,” said Steve. This was for he set my valise inside. In my tenderfoot my benefit. innocence I was looking indoors for the washing “Dear me!” said I. arrangements. “But I guess one of them drummers will let “It’s out hyeh, seh,” he informed me gravely, yu’ double up with him.” Steve was enjoying but with strong Southern accent. Internal mirth himself, I think. He had his saddle and blankets, seemed often to heighten the local flavor of his and beds were nothing to him.

7 speech. There were other times when it had trough, and he had somehow brushed his scarce any special accent or fault in grammar. clothes. With all the roughness of his dress, he A trough was to my right, slippery with was now the neatest of us. He nodded to some soapy water; and hanging from a roller above of the other cow-boys, and began his meal in one end of it was a rag of discouraging quiet. appearance. The Virginian caught it, and it But silence is not the native element of the performed one whirling revolution on its roller. drummer. An average fish can go a longer time Not a dry or clean inch could be found on it. He out of water than this breed can live without took off his hat, and put his head in the door. talking. One of them now looked across the “Your towel, ma’am,” said he, “has been too table at the grave, flannel-shirted Virginian; he popular.” inspected, and came to the imprudent She came out, a pretty woman. Her eyes conclusion that he understood his man. rested upon him for a moment, then upon me “Good evening,” he said briskly. with disfavor; then they returned to his black “Good evening,” said the Virginian. hair. “Just come to town?” pursued the drummer. “The allowance is one a day,” said she, very “Just come to town,” the Virginian suavely quietly. “But when folks are particular —” She assented. completed her sentence by removing the old “Cattle business jumping along?” inquired towel and giving a clean one to us. the drummer. “Thank you, ma’am,” said the cow-puncher. “Oh, fair.” And the Virginian took some She looked once more at his black hair, and more corned beef. without any word returned to her guests at “Gets a move on your appetite, anyway,” supper. suggested the drummer. A pail stood in the trough, almost empty; and The Virginian drank some coffee. Presently this he filled for me from a well. There was the pretty woman refilled his cup without his some soap sliding at large in the trough, but I asking her. got my own. And then in a tin basin I removed “Guess I’ve met you before,” the drummer as many of the stains of travel as I was able. It stated next. was not much of a toilet that I made in this first The Virginian glanced at him for a brief wash-trough of my experience, but it had to moment. suffice, and I took my seat at supper. “Haven’t I, now? Ain’t I seen you Canned stuff it was, — corned beef. And one somewheres? Look at me. You been in Chicago, of my table companions said the truth about it. ain’t you? You look at me well. Remember “When I slung my teeth over that,” he remarked, Ikey’s, don’t you?” “I thought I was chewing a hammock.” We had “I don’t reckon I do.” strange coffee, and condensed milk; and I have “See, now! I knowed you’d been in Chicago. never seen more flies. I made no attempt to talk, Four or five years ago. Or maybe it’s two years. for no one in this country seemed favorable to Time’s nothing to me. But I never forget a face. me. By reason of something, — my clothes, my Yes, sir. Him and me’s met at Ikey’s, all right.” hat, my pronunciation, whatever it might be,  This important point the drummer stated to all I possessed the secret of estranging people at of us. We were called to witness how well he sight. Yet I was doing better than I knew; my had proved old acquaintanceship. “Ain’t the strict silence and attention to the corned beef world small, though!” he exclaimed made me in the eyes of the cow-boys at table complacently. “Meet a man once and you’re compare well with the over-talkative sure to run on to him again. That’s straight. commercial travellers. That’s no bar-room josh.” And the drummer’s The Virginian’s entrance produced a slight eye included us all in his confidence. I silence. He had done wonders with the wash- wondered if he had attained that high perfection

8 when a man believes his own lies. The would end by sleeping in his bed; but how the Virginian did not seem interested. He placidly thing would be done interested me more deeply attended to his food, while our landlady moved than ever. between dining room and kitchen, and the The Virginian looked amiably at his intended drummer expanded. victim, and made one or two remarks regarding “Yes, sir! Ikey’s over by the stock-yards, patent medicines. There must be a good deal of patronized by all cattlemen that know what’s money in them, he supposed, with a live man to what. That’s where. Maybe it’s three years. manage them. The victim was flattered. No Time never was nothing to me. But faces! Why, other person at the table had been favored with I can’t quit ’em. Adults or children, male and so much of the tall cow-puncher’s notice. He female; onced I seen ’em I couldn’t lose one off responded, and they had a pleasant talk. I did my memory, not if you were to pay me bounty, not divine that the Virginian’s genius was even five dollars a face. White men, that is. Can’t do then at work, and that all this was part of his nothing with niggers or Chinese. But you’re satanic strategy. But Steve must have divined it. white, all right.” The drummer suddenly For while a few of us still sat finishing our returned to the Virginian with this high supper, that facetious horseman returned from compliment. The cow-puncher had taken out a doctoring his horse’s hoofs, put his head into the pipe, and was slowly rubbing it. The dining room, took in the way in which the compliment seemed to escape his attention, and Virginian was engaging his victim in the drummer went on. conversation, remarked aloud, “I’ve lost!” and “I can tell a man when he’s white, put him at closed the door again. Ikey’s or out loose here in the sage-brush.” And “What’s he lost?” inquired the American he rolled a cigar across to the Virginian’s plate. drummer. “Selling them?” inquired the Virginian. “Oh, you mustn’t mind him,” drawled the “Solid goods, my friend. Havana wrappers, Virginian. “He’s one of those box-head jokers the biggest tobacco proposition for five cents goes around openin’ and shuttin’ doors that-a- got out yet. Take it, try it, light it, watch it burn. way. We call him harmless. Well,” he broke off, Here.” And he held out a bunch of matches. “I reckon I’ll go smoke. Not allowed in hyeh?” The Virginian tossed a five-cent piece over to This last he addressed to the landlady, with him. especial gentleness. She shook her head, and her “Oh, no, my friend! Not from you! Not after eyes followed him as he went out. Ikey’s. I don’t forget you. See? I knowed your Left to myself I meditated for some time face right away. See? That’s straight. I seen you upon my lodging for the night, and smoked a at Chicago all right.” cigar for consolation as I walked about. It was “Maybe you did,” said the Virginian. not a hotel that we had supped in. Hotel at “Sometimes I’m mighty careless what I look Medicine Bow there appeared to be none. But at.” connected with the eating-house was that place “Well, py damn!” now exclaimed the Dutch where, according to Steve, the beds were all drummer, hilariously. “I am ploom taken, and there I went to see for myself. Steve disappointed. I vas hoping to sell him had spoken the truth. It was a single apartment somedings myself.” containing four or five beds, and nothing else “Not the same here,” stated the American. whatever. And when I looked at these beds, my “He’s too healthy for me. I gave him up on sorrow that I could sleep in none of them grew sight.” less. To be alone in one offered no temptation, Now it was the American drummer whose and as for this courtesy of the country, this bed the Virginian had in his eye. This was a doubling up — ! sensible man, and had talked less than his “Well, they have got ahead of us.” This was brothers in the trade. I had little doubt who the Virginian standing at my elbow.

9

I assented. when you feel inclined, old man! I ain’t retiring “They have staked out their claims,” he just yet.” added. The drummer had struck a slightly false note In this public sleeping room they had done in these last remarks. He should not have said what one does to secure a seat in a railroad train. “old man.” Until this I had thought him merely Upon each bed, as notice of occupancy, lay an amiable person who wished to do a favor. some article of travel or of dress. As we stood But “old man” came in wrong. It had a hateful there, the two Jews came in and opened and taint of his profession; the being too soon with arranged their valises, and folded and refolded everybody, the celluloid good-fellowship that their linen dusters. Then a railroad employee passes for ivory with nine in ten of the city entered and began to go to bed at this hour, crowd. But not so with the sons of the before dusk had wholly darkened into night. For sagebrush. They live nearer nature, and they him, going to bed meant removing his boots and know better. placing his overalls and waistcoat beneath his But the Virginian blandly accepted “old pillow. He had no coat. His work began at three man” from his victim: he had a game to play. in the morning; and even as we still talked he “Well, I cert’nly thank yu’,” he said. “After a began to snore. while I’ll take advantage of your kind offer.” “The man that keeps the store is a friend of I was surprised. Possession being nine points mine,” said the Virginian; “and you can be of the law, it seemed his very chance to intrench pretty near comfortable on his counter. Got any himself in the bed. But the cow-puncher had blankets?” planned a campaign needing no intrenchments. I had no blankets. Moreover, going to bed before nine o’clock “Looking for a bed?” inquired the American upon the first evening in many weeks that a drummer, now arriving. town’s resources were open to you, would be a “Yes, he’s looking for a bed,” answered the dull proceeding. Our entire company, drummer voice of Steve behind him. and all, now walked over to the store, and here “Seems a waste of time,” observed the my sleeping arrangements were made easily. Virginian. He looked thoughtfully from one bed This store was the cleanest place and the best in to another. “I didn’t know I’d have to lay over Medicine Bow, and would have been a good here. Well, I have sat up before.” store anywhere, offering a multitude of things “This one’s mine,” said the drummer, sitting for sale, and kept by a very civil proprietor. He down on it. “Half’s plenty enough room for bade me make myself at home, and placed both me.” of his counters at my disposal. Upon the grocery “You’re cert’nly mighty kind,” said the cow- side there stood a cheese too large and strong to puncher. “But I’d not think o’ disconveniencing sleep near comfortably, and I therefore chose yu’.” the dry-goods side. Here thick quilts were “That’s nothing. The other half is yours. Turn unrolled for me, to make it soft; and no in right now if you feel like it.” condition was placed upon me, further than that “No. I don’t reckon I’ll turn in right now. I should remove my boots, because the quilts Better keep your bed to yourself.” were new, and clean, and for sale. So now my “See here,” urged the drummer, “if I take you rest was assured. Not an anxiety remained in my I’m safe from drawing some party I might not thoughts. These therefore turned themselves care so much about. This here sleeping wholly to the other man’s bed, and how he was proposition is a lottery.” going to lose it. “Well,” said the Virginian (and his hesitation I think that Steve was more curious even than was truly masterly), “if you put it that way —” myself. Time was on the wing. His bet must be “I do put it that way. Why, you’re clean! decided, and the drinks enjoyed. He stood You’ve had a shave right now. You turn in against the grocery counter, contemplating the

10

Virginian. But it was to me that he spoke. The and I bethought me of that epithet which Steve Virginian, however, listened to every word. again had used to the Virginian as he clapped “Your first visit to this country?” him on the shoulder. Clearly this wild country I told him yes. spoke a language other than mine — the word “How do you like it?” here was a term of endearment. Such was my I expected to like it very much. conclusion. “How does the climate strike you?” The drummers had finished their dealings I thought the climate was fine. with the proprietor, and they were gossiping “Makes a man thirsty though.” together in a knot by the door as the Virginian This was the sub-current which the Virginian passed out. plainly looked for. But he, like Steve, addressed “See you later, old man!” This was the himself to me. American drummer accosting his prospective “Yes,” he put in, “thirsty while a man’s soft bed-fellow. yet. You’ll harden.” “Oh, yes,” returned the bed-fellow, and was “I guess you’ll find it a drier country than gone. you were given to expect,” said Steve. The American drummer winked triumphantly “If your habits have been frequent that way,” at his brethren. “He’s all right,” he observed, said the Virginian. jerking a thumb after the Virginian. “He’s easy. “There’s parts of Wyoming,” pursued Steve, You got to know him to work him. That’s all.” “where you’ll go hours and hours before you’ll “Und vat is your point?” inquired the German see a drop of wetness.” drummer. “And if yu’ keep a-thinkin’ about it,” said the “Point is — he’ll not take any goods off you Virginian, “it’ll seem like days and days.” or me; but he’s going to talk up the killer to any Steve, at this stroke, gave up, and clapped consumptive he runs acrost. I ain’t done with him on the shoulder with a joyous chuckle. him yet. Say,” (he now addressed the “You old son-of-a  !” he cried proprietor), “what’s her name?” affectionately. “Whose name?” “Drinks are due now,” said the Virginian. “Woman runs the eating-house.” “My treat, Steve. But I reckon your suspense “Glen. Mrs. Glen.” will have to linger a while yet.” “Ain’t she new?” Thus they dropped into direct talk from that “Been settled here about a month. Husband’s speech of the fourth dimension where they had a freight conductor.” been using me for their telephone. “Thought I’d not seen her before. She’s a “Any cyards going to-night?” inquired the good-looker.” Virginian. “Hm! Yes. The kind of good looks I’d sooner “Stud and draw,” Steve told him. “Strangers see in another man’s wife than mine.” playing.” “So that’s the gait, is it?” “I think I’d like to get into a game for a “Hm! well, it don’t seem to be. She come while,” said the Southerner. “Strangers, yu’ here with that reputation. But there’s been say?” general disappointment.” And then, before quitting the store, he made “Then she ain’t lacked suitors any?” his toilet for this little hand at poker. It was a “Lacked! Are you acquainted with cow- simple preparation. He took his pistol from its boys?” holster, examined it, then shoved it between his “And she disappointed ’em? Maybe she likes overalls and his shirt in front, and pulled his her husband?” waistcoat over it. He might have been combing “Hm! well, how are you to tell about them his hair for all the attention any one paid to this, silent kind?” except myself. Then the two friends went out,

11

“Talking of conductors,” began the drummer. “No place for amatures,” repeated the voice; And we listened to his anecdote. It was and now I saw that it was the dealer’s. There successful with his audience; but when he was in his countenance the same ugliness that launched fluently upon a second I strolled out. his words conveyed. There was not enough wit in this narrator to “Who’s that talkin’?” said one of the men relieve his indecency, and I felt shame at having near me, in a low voice. been surprised into laughing with him. “Trampas.” I left that company growing confidential over “What’s he?” their leering stories, and I sought the saloon. It “Cow-puncher, bronco-buster, tin-horn, most was very quiet and orderly. Beer in quart bottles anything.” at a dollar I had never met before; but saving its “Who’s he talkin’ at?” price, I found no complaint to make of it. “Think it’s the black-headed guy he’s talking Through folding doors I passed from the bar at.” proper with its bottles and elk head back to the “That ain’t supposed to be safe, is it?” hall with its various tables. I saw a man sliding “Guess we’re all goin’ to find out in a few cards from a case, and across the table from him minutes.” another man laying counters down. Near by was “Been trouble between ’em?” a second dealer pulling cards from the bottom of “They’ve not met before. Trampas don’t a pack, and opposite him a solemn old rustic enjoy losin’ to a stranger.” piling and changing coins upon the cards which “Fello’s from Arizona, yu’ say?” lay already exposed. “No. Virginia. He’s recently back from But now I heard a voice that drew my eyes to havin’ a look at Arizona. Went down there last the far corner of the room. year for a change. Works for the Sunk Creek “Why didn’t you stay in Arizona?” outfit.” And then the dealer lowered his voice Harmless looking words as I write them still further and said something in the other down here. Yet at the sound of them I noticed man’s ear, causing him to grin. After which both the eyes of the others directed to that corner. of them looked at me. What answer was given to them I did not hear, There had been silence over in the corner; but nor did I see who spoke. Then came another now the man Trampas spoke again. remark. “And ten,” said he, sliding out some chips “Well, Arizona’s no place for amatures.” from before him. Very strange it was to hear This time the two card dealers that I stood him, how he contrived to make those words a near began to give a part of their attention to the personal taunt. The Virginian was looking at his group that sat in the corner. There was in me a cards. He might have been deaf. desire to leave this room. So far my hours at “And twenty,” said the next player, easily. Medicine Bow had seemed to glide beneath a The next threw his cards down. sunshine of merriment, of easy-going jocularity. It was now the Virginian’s turn to bet, or This was suddenly gone, like the wind changing leave the game, and he did not speak at once. to north in the middle of a warm day. But I Therefore Trampas spoke. “Your bet, you stayed, being ashamed to go. son-of-a —.” Five or six players sat over in the corner at a The Virginian’s pistol came out, and his hand round table where counters were piled. Their lay on the table, holding it unaimed. And with a eyes were close upon their cards, and one voice as gentle as ever, the voice that sounded seemed to be dealing a card at a time to each, almost like a caress, but drawling a very little with pauses and betting between. Steve was more than usual, so that there was almost a there and the Virginian; the others were new space between each word, he issued his orders faces. to the man Trampas: 

12

“When you call me that, smile.” And he “Sit quiet,” said the dealer, scornfully to the looked at Trampas across the table. man near me. “Can’t you see he don’t want to Yes, the voice was gentle. But in my ears it push trouble? He has handed Trampas the seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was choice to back down or draw his steel.” ringing; and silence, like a stroke, fell on the Then, with equal suddenness and ease, the large room. All men present, as if by some room came out of its strangeness. Voices and magnetic current, had become aware of this cards, the click of chips, the puff of tobacco, crisis. In my ignorance, and the total stoppage of glasses lifted to drink, — this level of smooth my thoughts, I stood stock-still, and noticed relaxation hinted no more plainly of what lay various people crouching, or shifting their beneath than does the surface tell the depth of positions. the sea. For Trampas had made his choice. And that choice was not to “draw his steel.” If it was knowledge that he sought, he had found it, and no mistake! We heard no further reference to what he had been pleased to style “amatures.” In no company would the black-headed man who had visited Arizona be rated a novice at the cool art of self-preservation. One doubt remained: what kind of a man was Trampas? A public back-down is an unfinished thing, — for some natures at least. I looked at his face, and thought it sullen, but tricky rather than courageous. Something had been added to my knowledge also. Once again I had heard applied to the Virginian that epithet which Steve so freely used. The same words, identical to the letter. But this time they had produced a pistol. “When you call me that, smile!” So I perceived a new example of the old truth, that the letter means

“When you call me that, smile!” nothing until the spirit gives it life.

III. STEVE TREATS It was for “Tell me when?” several minutes, I suppose, that I stood drawing “Didn’t I tell you he’d not shoot?” the dealer these silent morals. No man occupied himself pursued with complacence. “You got ready to with me. Quiet voices, and games of chance, dodge. You had no call to be concerned. He’s and glasses lifted to drink, continued to be the not the kind a man need feel anxious about.” peaceful order of the night. And into my The player looked over at the Virginian, thoughts broke the voice of that card-dealer who doubtfully. “Well,” he said, “I don’t know what had already spoken so sagely. He also took his you folks call a dangerous man.” turn at moralizing. “Not him!” exclaimed the dealer with “What did I tell you?” he remarked to the admiration. “He’s a brave man. That’s man for whom he continued to deal, and who different.” continued to lose money to him.

13

The player seemed to follow this reasoning idea of them, smote my American heart, and I no better than I did. have never forgotten it, nor ever shall, as long as “It’s not a brave man that’s dangerous,” I live. In their flesh our natural passions ran continued the dealer. “It’s the cowards that scare tumultuous; but often in their spirit sat hidden a me.” He paused that this might sink home. true nobility, and often beneath its unexpected “Fello’ came in here las’ Toosday,” he went shining their figures took on heroic stature. on. “He got into some misunderstanding about The dealer had styled the Virginian “a black- the drinks. Well, sir, before we could put him headed guy.” This did well enough as an out of business, he’d hurt two perfectly innocent unflattered portrait. Judge Henry’s trustworthy onlookers. They’d no more to do with it than man, with whom I was to drive two hundred and you have,” the dealer explained to me. sixty-three miles, certainly had a very black “Were they badly hurt?” I asked. head of hair. It was the first thing to notice now, “One of ’em was. He’s died since.” if one glanced generally at the table where he “What became of the man?” sat at cards. But the eye came back to him — “Why, we put him out of business, I told you. drawn by that inexpressible something which He died that night. But there was no occasion had led the dealer to speak so much at length for any of it; and that’s why I never like to be about him. around where there’s a coward. You can’t tell. Still, “black-headed guy” justly fits him and He’ll always go to shooting before it’s his next performance. He had made his plan for necessary, and there’s no security who he’ll hit. this like a true and (I must say) inspired devil. But a man like that black-headed guy is (the And now the highly appreciative town of dealer indicated the Virginian) need never worry Medicine Bow was to be treated to a you. And there’s another point why there’s no manifestation of genius. need to worry about him: it’ll be too late!” He sat playing his stud-poker. After a decent These good words ended the moralizing of period of losing and winning, which gave the dealer. He had given us a piece of his mind. Trampas all proper time for a change of luck He now gave the whole of it to dealing cards. I and a repairing of his fortunes, he looked at loitered here and there, neither welcome nor Steve and said amiably:  unwelcome at present, watching the cow-boys at “How does bed strike you?” their play. Saving Trampas, there was scarce a I was beside their table, learning gradually face among them that had not in it something that stud-poker has in it more of what I will call very likable. Here were lusty horsemen ridden red pepper than has our Eastern game. The from the heat of the sun, and the wet of the Virginian followed his own question:  storm, to divert themselves awhile. Youth “Bed strikes me,” he stated. untamed sat here for an idle moment, spending Steve feigned indifference. He was far more easily its hard-earned wages. City saloons rose deeply absorbed in his bet and the American into my vision, and I instantly preferred this drummer than he was in this game; but he chose Rocky Mountain place. More of death it to take out a fat, florid gold watch, consult it undoubtedly saw, but less of vice, than did its elaborately, and remark, “It’s only eleven.” New York equivalents. And death is a thing “Yu’ forget I’m from the country,” said the much cleaner than vice. Moreover, it was by no black-headed guy. “The chickens have been means vice that was written upon these wild and roostin’ a right smart while.” manly faces. Even where baseness was visible, His sunny Southern accent was again strong. baseness was not uppermost. Daring, laughter, In that brief passage with Trampas it had been endurance — these were what I saw upon the almost wholly absent. But different moods of countenances of the cow-boys. And this very the spirit bring different qualities of utterance — first day of my knowledge of them marks a date where a man comes by these naturally. The with me. For something about them, and the Virginian cashed in his checks.

14

“Awhile ago,” said Steve, “you had won barked his shin just now.” It seemed my English three months’ salary.” clothes had earned me this title. “I’m still twenty dollars to the good,” said the The boots of the Virginian were next heard to Virginian. “That’s better than breaking a laig.” drop. Again, in some voiceless, masonic way, most “Can yu’ make out what he’s at?” whispered people in that saloon had become aware that Steve. something was in process of happening. He was plainly undressing. The rip of swift Several left their games and came to the front by unbuttoning told us that the black-headed guy the bar. must now be removing his overalls. “If he ain’t in bed yet —” mused the “Why, thank yu’, no,” he was replying to a Virginian. question of the drummer. “Outside or in’s all “I’ll find out,” said I. And I hurried across to one to me.” the dim sleeping room, happy to have a part in “Then, if you’d just as soon take the wall ” this. “Why, cert’nly.” There was a sound of They were all in bed; and in some beds two bedclothes, and creaking. “This hyeh pillo’ were sleeping. How they could do it — but in needs a Southern climate,” was the Virginian’s those days I was fastidious. The American had next observation. come in recently and was still awake. Many listeners had now gathered at the door. “Thought you were to sleep at the store?” The dealer and the player were both here. The said he. storekeeper was present, and I recognized the So then I invented a little lie, and explained agent of the Union Pacific Railroad among the that I was in search of the Virginian. crowd. We made a large company, and I felt “Better search the dives,” said he. “These that trembling sensation which is common when cow-boys don’t get to town often.” the cap of a camera is about to be removed upon At this point I stumbled sharply over a group. something. “I should think,” said the drummer’s voice, “It’s my box of Consumption Killer,” “that you’d feel your knife and gun clean explained the drummer. “Well, I hope that man through that pillow.” will stay out all night.” “I do,” responded the Virginian. “Bed narrow?” I inquired. “I should think you’d put them on a chair and “For two it is. And the pillows are mean. be comfortable.” Takes both before you feel anything’s under “I’d be uncomfortable, then.” your head.” “Used to the feel of them, I suppose?” He yawned, and I wished him pleasant “That’s it. Used to the feel of them. I would dreams. miss them, and that would make me wakeful.” At my news the Virginian left the bar at once, “Well, good night.” and crossed to the sleeping room. Steve and I “Good night. If I get to talkin’ and tossin’, or followed softly, and behind us several more what not, you’ll understand you’re to —” strung out in an expectant line. “What is this “Yes, I’ll wake you.” going to be?” they inquired curiously of each “No, don’t yu’, for God’s sake!” other. And upon learning the great novelty of “Not?” the event, they clustered with silence intense “Don’t yu’ touch me.” outside the door where the Virginian had gone “What’ll I do?” in. “Roll away quick to your side. It don’t last We heard the voice of the drummer, but a minute.” The Virginian spoke with a cautioning his bed-fellow. “Don’t trip over the reassuring drawl. Killer,” he was saying. “The Prince of Wales

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Upon this there fell a brief silence, and I his stockings. One hand held a lump of coat and heard the drummer clear his throat once or trousers with suspenders dangling, his boots twice. were clutched in the other. The sight of us “It’s merely the nightmare, I suppose?” he stopped his flight short. He gazed, the boots fell said after a throat clearing. from his hand; and at his profane explosion, “Lord, yes. That’s all. And don’t happen Medicine Bow set up a united, unearthly noise twice a year. Was you thinkin’ it was fits?” and began to play Virginia reel with him. The “Oh, no! I just wanted to know. I’ve been other occupants of the beds had already sprung told before that it was not safe for a person to be out of them, clothed chiefly with their pistols, waked suddenly that way out of a nightmare.” and ready for war. “Yes, I have heard that too. But it never “What is it?” they demanded. “What is it?” harms me any. I didn’t want you to run risks.” “Why, I reckon it’s drinks on Steve,” said the “Me?” Virginian from his bed. And he gave the first “Oh, it’ll be all right now that yu’ know how broad grin that I had seen from him. it is.” The Virginian’s drawl was full of “I’ll set ’em up all night!” Steve shouted, as assurance. the reel went on regardless. The drummer was There was a second pause, after which the bawling to be allowed to put at least his boots drummer said: on. “This way, Pard,” was the answer; and “Tell me again how it is.” another man whirled him round. “This way, The Virginian answered very drowsily: “Oh, Beau!” they called to him; “This way, Budd!” just don’t let your arm or your laig touch me if I and he was passed like a shuttle-cock down the go to jumpin’ around. I’m dreamin’ of Indians line. Suddenly the leaders bounded into the when I do that. And if anything touches me sleeping-room. “Feed the machine!” they said. then, I’m liable to grab my knife right in my “Feed her!” And seizing the German drummer sleep.” who sold jewellery, they flung him into the “Oh, I understand,” said the drummer, trough of the reel. I saw him go bouncing like clearing his throat. “Yes.” an ear of corn to be shelled, and the dance Steve was whispering delighted oaths to ingulfed him. I saw a Jew sent rattling after him; himself, and in his joy applying to the Virginian and next they threw in the railroad employee, one unprintable name after another. and the other Jew; and while I stood We listened again, but now no further words mesmerized, my own feet left the earth. I shot came. Listening very hard, I could half make out from the room and sped like a bobbing cork into the progress of a heavy breathing, and a restless this mill race, whirling my turn in the wake of turning I could clearly detect. This was the the others amid cries of, “Here comes the Prince wretched drummer. He was waiting. But he did of Wales!” There was soon not much English not wait long. Again there was a light creak, and left about my raiment. after it a light step. He was not even going to put They were now shouting for music. Medicine his boots on in the fatal neighborhood of the Bow swept in like a cloud of dust to where a dreamer. By a happy thought Medicine Bow fiddler sat playing in a hall; and gathering up formed into two lines, making an avenue from fiddler and dancers, swept out again, a larger the door. And then the commercial traveller Medicine Bow, growing all the while. Steve forgot his Consumption Killer. He fell heavily offered us the freedom of the house, over it. everywhere. He implored us to call for whatever Immediately from the bed the Virginian gave pleased us, and as many times as we should forth a dreadful howl. please. He ordered the town to be searched for And then everything happened at once; and more citizens to come and help him pay his bet. how shall mere words narrate it? The door burst But changing his mind, kegs and bottles were open, and out flew the commercial traveller in now carried along with us. We had found three

16 fiddlers, and these played busily for us; and thus that there was a woman — the engineer’s we set out to visit all cabins and houses where woman down by the water-tank — very sick. people might still by some miracle be asleep. The doctor had been to see her from Laramie. The first man put out his head to decline. But Everybody liked the engineer. Plank and keg such a possibility had been foreseen by the were heard no more. The horsemen found it out proprietor of the store. This seemingly and restrained their gambols. Medicine Bow respectable man now came dragging some sort went gradually home. I saw doors shutting, and of apparatus from his place, helped by the lights go out; I saw a late few reassemble at the Virginian. The cow-boys cheered, for they knew card tables, and the drummers gathered what this was. The man in his window likewise themselves together for sleep; the proprietor of recognized it, and uttering a groan, came the store (you could not see a more respectable- immediately out and joined us. What it was, I looking person) hoped that I would be also learned in a few minutes. For we found a comfortable on the quilts; and I heard Steve house where the people made no sign at either urging the Virginian to take one more glass. our fiddlers or our knocking. And then the “We’ve not met for so long,” he said. infernal machine was set to work. Its parts But the Virginian, the black-headed guy who seemed to be no more than an empty keg and a had set all this nonsense going, said No to plank. Some citizen informed me that I should Steve. “I have got to stay responsible,” was his soon have a new idea of noise; and I nerved excuse to his friend. And the friend looked at myself for something severe in the way of me. Therefore I surmised that the Judge’s gunpowder. But the Virginian and the proprietor trustworthy man found me an embarrassment to now sat on the ground holding the keg braced, his holiday. But if he did, he never showed it to and two others got down apparently to play see- me. He had been sent to meet a stranger and saw over the top of it with the plank. But the drive him to Sunk Creek in safety, and this keg and plank had been rubbed with rosin, and charge he would allow no temptation to imperil. they drew the plank back and forth over the keg. He nodded good night to me. “If there’s Do you know the sound made in a narrow street anything I can do for yu’, you’ll tell me.” by a dray loaded with strips of iron? That noise I thanked him. “What a pleasant evening!” I is a lullaby compared with the staggering, added. blinding bellow which rose from the keg. If you “I’m glad yu’ found it so.” were to try it in your native town, you would not Again his manner put a bar to my merely be arrested, you would be hanged, and approaches. Even though I had seen him wildly everybody would be glad, and the clergyman disporting himself, those were matters which he would not bury you. My head, my teeth, the chose not to discuss with me. whole system of my bones leaped and chattered Medicine Bow was quiet as I went my way to at the din, and out of the house like drops my quilts. So still, that through the air the deep squirted from a lemon came a man and his wife. whistles of the freight trains came from below No time was given them. They were swept the horizon across great miles of silence. I along with the rest; and having been routed from passed cow-boys, whom half an hour before I their own bed, they now became most furious in had seen prancing and roaring, now rolled in assailing the remaining homes of Medicine their blankets beneath the open and shining Bow. Everybody was to come out. Many were night. now riding horses at top speed out into the “What world am I in?” I said aloud. “Does plains and back, while the procession of the this same planet hold Fifth Avenue?” plank and keg continued its work, and the And I went to sleep, pondering over my fiddlers played incessantly. native land. Suddenly there was a quiet. I did not see who brought the message; but the word ran among us

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